


One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

by SleepingAshes



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Relationships, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 04:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11684157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingAshes/pseuds/SleepingAshes
Summary: “I was just thinking you and Gaius might be able to relate to having that in common.”Tharja wanted to call him stupid for thinking such a thing but she refrained. She knew next to nothing about Gaius, only that he apparently was part of the ten percent of people who had to deal with watching your soulmate be happy with someone else. That, and he liked sweet things. But that didn’t take a genius to figure out.She sighed heavily and shoved the thought to the back of her mind. Henry was just meddling, there was no real weight to anything he said. Gaius seemed annoying, she’d probably hate him if she got to know him, so she decided not to think about it. Now or ever.





	One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

**Author's Note:**

> So this is part of something I want to expand on one day. The soulmates I'm going with is everyone has the first words their soulmate will speak to them somewhere on their body! Background Robin/Chrom and while Tharja and Gaius don't immediately get together in this, they will, and I plan to write about that as well. Maybe as a continuation of this fic or as a new fic entirely. Hope you enjoy!

The first time Tharja met Robin, she was convinced Robin was her soulmate. For various reasons, but mainly the first words Robin ever spoke to her perfectly matched up with the words written across her arm.

“You don’t really care about personal space, do you?” The woman had asked, startled.

Tharja had been spying on her, not that she was about to tell her that. She’d recently moved for college and while she already had a few friends, Robin was just so different. Something about her made Tharja curious and so she’d taken to inspecting a bit while Robin took a nap between classes.

Robin was a very beautiful woman. She had long white hair-- an unusual color but Robin managed to pull it off wonderfully. She had a figure that Tharja would admit was completely her type. If someone was close enough to really look, which Tharja had been, they’d be able to see Robin had freckles. She was perfect, in Tharja’s book.

So when Robin had woken up and said those words the only thing Tharja found she could say was,

“This is great. Truly.”

“Excuse me?”

Tharja sighed and rolled up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal the words to Robin. Robin’s expression went from very confused and slightly scared to something much sadder. Robin didn’t have to explain it, Tharja understood from the shift in expressions alone.

“I’m so sorry…” Robin started, “I’m not… I already found my soulmate.”

It turned out Chrom was Robin’s soulmate. Tharja should have expected it. They were quite the pair and always seemed so happy to see each other. She couldn’t even be mad that Robin was with him instead. She could see how happy Robin was with Chrom. It hurt, knowing it wasn’t her, but the more she discovered about Robin the more she thought it was probably better this way. Chrom could give her a lot of support Tharja just couldn’t. Not now, anyways.

Still, Robin was a friend to her. Tharja couldn’t exactly understand why she would still try to be her friend after their first real encounter, but she wasn’t going to complain. It eased the rejection a little and gave her a bigger circle of people to hang out with when she wasn’t occupied with classes or Henry.

Tharja had been watching Robin from afar one day, she was with Chrom of course, talking to one of Chrom’s friends. She was pretty sure the other man’s name was Gaius and he was supposedly Chrom’s roommate. She’d seen him a few times here and there while the group was together but never actually spoke to him.

“You know,” Henry had told her, “I heard a fun little rumor that he’s like you.”

“Like me? Elaborate.”

“Ricken told me Chrom’s his soulmate.”

“And Chrom’s with Robin.” Tharja filled in. “Ricken told you this why?”

Henry shrugged.

“It came up. He’s really bad at convincing me soulmates mean something when there’s cases like you and Gaius. Why should you hope so much someone will say a few fancy words if there’s no guarantee they’re your soulmate?”

“It works for ninety percent of the population, Henry. Not everyone is like you.” Tharja mumbled.

“More people should be. It’s better not caring and just seeing where life takes you.”

“Tell that to all the happy couples everywhere.”

“I’ve told it to Chrom and Robin but they don’t really care about what I have to say on the matter.”

Tharja scoffed.

“Of course they don’t. Not when they’re happy like that.”

“Do you think Gaius is as spiteful as you are?” Henry questioned, smiling.

Tharja stared at him.

“I am  _ not  _ spiteful.” She snapped, “ _ What  _ is the point of this conversation anyways? I like you better when you aren’t trying to sound better than everyone!”

“I was just thinking you and Gaius might be able to relate to having that in common.”

Tharja wanted to call him stupid for thinking such a thing but she refrained. She knew next to nothing about Gaius, only that he apparently was part of the ten percent of people who had to deal with watching your soulmate be happy with someone else. That, and he liked sweet things. But that didn’t take a genius to figure out.

She sighed heavily and shoved the thought to the back of her mind. Henry was just meddling, there was no real weight to anything he said. Gaius seemed annoying, she’d probably hate him if she got to know him, so she decided not to think about it. Now or ever.

*

Gaius sighed heavily as he opened the door to his new apartment. Well, kind of his but not really. He was sharing with a roommate he found online. Lucky him, he got some rich kid who would cover a good portion of the rent but still wanted a roommate anyways. He wasn’t really in a place to be picky but he hoped this guy wasn’t too uppity.

He entered the living area, which was connected to the kitchen just a few feet away. There stood the man Gaius assumed was his roommate.

“Hey, sorry I’m late. I’m Gaius, you’re Chrom, right?”

The man nodded and held out a hand, smiling.

“I look forward to our time together.”

Gaius froze. Had he heard Chrom right? He shifted awkwardly for a moment before he noticed Chrom giving him a concerned look. What a way to kick off a first meeting… 

“Shit, sorry,” Gaius let out a forced laugh, “It’s just...funny you’d say that.”

“I don’t follow.”

Gaius grumbled something inaudible but held out his arm for Chrom to see. The sentence he’d just said was written on his arm, but Gaius was already guessing that didn’t mean anything. If it did, Chrom would have reacted to something he’d said by now. Chrom mouthed a small ‘oh’ before frowning.

“I’m...sorry, nothing you’ve said is my soulmark…”

“No big deal.” Gaius said, shrugging. “Anyways, you _ are _ Chrom, right? Guy I’m gonna be living with for the next year?”

“That would be me, yes.”

“Great. I’m gonna be upfront with you, my sleeping schedule is some shit so if that bothers you, tell me now and I’ll keep my late night shit to my room.”

“No, I’m honestly a heavy sleeper, it should be fine so long as you aren’t banging pots and pans.” Chrom still had a bit of a look on his face, one Gaius could almost call pity, but he seemed to be getting what Gaius was going for.

_ Just forget about it. It doesn’t have to mean something, these things happen. _ At the end of the day Gaius was glad that Chrom didn’t bring it up again. He didn’t want that to loom over their possible friendship and he definitely didn’t need things to get too awkward to the point where Chrom regretted asking for a roommate. He was sure it was better to just let it go and not talk about it.

Unfortunately Chrom was the type to bring it up. Gaius knew he only did it because he was concerned, and by the time Chrom did bring it up they were a lot closer. It wasn’t invasive, Chrom was really just asking to understand how Gaius was feeling about it or if he felt anything at all on the subject.

“It’s really not a big deal to me.” Gaius admitted when he’d been asked. “I see a lot of people happy with their soulmates but things have never been that clear cut for me. Honestly, I was expecting something like this happening.”

“Really? So you’re telling me you were just...fully prepared?”

“Kinda, yeah. Life threw me a ton of hardballs before so why would it be different here?”

“Most people look forward to their soulmate being the one guarantee in life…”

“Guess I’m not most people?” Gaius tried to smirk but it felt forced, “No really though, I grew up with people that didn’t have anything written on their body. No soulmark at all. Some people I was around were soulmates but they hated each other. I learned early on not to put all my hope into one person like that. Life doesn’t have guarantees.”

Chrom’s expression faltered a bit. Gaius quickly backtracked,

“It’s fine if people like the idea of soulmates, but that’s just not how I live my life.”

“That’s...it’s an interesting way to live.”

_ That’s a sad way to live _ went unspoken.

“I’m full of interesting things. Like this amazing ass recipe for cherry pie. You should try it some time, it’s great. Way sweeter than grocery store stuff.”

“You do this a lot,” Chrom said, suddenly sounding very serious.

“Do what?”

“I’ll say something and when you don’t like it, you completely change the topic.”

Gaius frowned.

“So?”

“ _ So _ , if I’m saying something wrong or I’m digging too deep you can just tell me I’m making you uncomfortable.”

“You aren’t making me uncomfortable. If you were, you’d know. I just don’t think there’s a point in talking about certain things when we don’t have to.”

He could tell that was the wrong thing to say. Chrom made this face when he was frustrated, Gaius thought it was kind of funny really. Luckily Chrom didn’t push the topic anymore, instead he sighed and shook his head.

“Before I forget, Robin’s coming over this weekend and she’s bringing Tharja and a few others with her. You’re invited if you want to hang out.”

“Sure, I have nothing better to do. Besides, you’d all miss my charm if I wasn’t there.”

Chrom rolled his eyes and Gaius considered the conversation not a  _ total _ failure. It could have been worse.

*

Tharja honestly hated everything about that evening but she kept her mouth shut. She was looking for a reason to leave, praying to whatever gods there were that Henry would call her with some dumb excuse to leave. Maybe he’ll find another crow and try to take it home again. He’d need her help catching it, yes that could work. It was outrageous but no one would question it because it was definitely something Henry would do.

Really she’d only come to this get together because it was Robin who asked her. Curse her soft spot for the other woman. She didn’t know most of the people there well enough and Ricken, who was  _ supposed _ to be here, hadn’t shown up after all. He was her backup for when Chrom inevitably captured Robin’s attention for the rest of the night. That had happened and now she stood there, not wanting to just leave without saying anything, but finding very few reasons to stay.

She let out a small sigh and took her plate of food into the kitchen to dispose of her leftovers. No point in forcing herself to stay...screw common decency, she’d just leave. She walked into the kitchen area and spotted Gaius, who was putting more food on his own plate. His short sleeved shirt just so happened to show off his soulmark. She leaned over just a bit to get a good view of it.

“I look forward to our time together.” Tharja read aloud.

Gaius jumped, only then realizing he wasn’t alone in the little area.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” He said to no one in particular, “You don’t really care about personal space, do you?”

“No, not really.” She admitted. “Seriously though, that was the first thing Chrom said to you? Sounds like something out of a bad romcom.”

“You should take that up with him, not me.” Gaius snapped, “He said it, it’s not my fault he’s a walking, talking, sap movie.”

“Someone’s not having a good night.”

“Oh, like you’re any better off than I am right now. Don’t think no one noticed you glaring daggers at Chrom while you were standing in the corner like a lost kid.”

“I’ve just remembered this is the first time we’ve ever actually spoken to each other.” Tharja noticed, “And now I realize I was feeling much better before speaking to you.”

“Sounds like a problem for  _ you _ to sort out.”

“You aren’t a very pleasant person, are you?”

“I’m a lot better when there’s not a bunch of college kids crammed into my apartment sucking each other’s faces off.”

There was a beat of silence. Clearly it had been a mistake to approach Gaius like this. He was irritated but Tharja didn’t blame him. She was right with him on how annoying this night had turned out and she didn’t feel like fighting with him just because he was getting pissed off. She simply nodded and set her plate down on the counter.

“I’ll be leaving then. If anyone asks, which I doubt they will, just make something up. I don’t really care.”

Tharja managed to leave without anyone noticing, not that it was a hard thing to accomplish. She felt much better once she was back in the comfort of her own apartment. Henry was still up, per usual, and he confessed to having Ricken over for the night, the little traitor that he was. It was only much later when Tharja had fully relaxed while spending time with Ricken and Henry that she realized what Gaius had said to her.


End file.
